The Other Objective of Ethics
Education: Re-humanising
the Accounting Profession –
A Study of Ethics Education
in Law, Engineering, Medicine
and Accountancy
ABSTRACT. Recently within the critical accounting
literature Funnell (1998) has argued that accounting
was implicated in the Holocaust. This charge is pri-
marily related to the technical, mathematical nature
of accounting and its ability to dehumanise individ-
uals. Broadbent (1998, see also DeMoss and McCann,
1997) has also contended that “accounting logic”
excludes emotion. She suggests that a more emanci-
patory form of accounting could be possible if
emotion were given a voice and allowed to be heard
within accounting discourse (see also Kjonstad and
Wilmott, 1995). This paper contends that emotion
should be introduced into accounting education and
in particular emotional commitment to other indi-
viduals should be encouraged. It is suggested that one
way to do this may be through business ethics edu-
cation. It is also suggested that increasing ethical com-
mitment to other individuals may go some way
towards combating the tendency for accountancy to
dehumanise other people. While there have been
specific studies of ethics and accounting education
there has, as yet, been little open debate about what
the objectives of accounting ethics education should
be or the specific techniques that could be used to
meet the desired aims. This paper contends that
Ken McPhail joined the Department of Accounting and
Finance at the University of Glasgow in September
1996. He received his doctorate in Accounting and
Business Ethics the following year. His research inter-
ests are in business ethics, accounting education and
critical accounting, and he has written a number of
articles in these areas. He has presented at numerous
international conferences and is currently collaborating on
an anthology of accounting poetry.
Journal of Business Ethics 34: 279–298, 2001.
© 2001 Kluwer Academic Publishers. Printed in the Netherlands.
Ken McPhail
accountancy has become dangerously dehumanised
and that one of the most important objectives for any
business ethics education must be to develop an
empathy with “the other”. The paper studies the
developments within the medical, legal and engi-
neering profession in order to suggest some specific
methods which could be employed in order to re-
humanise accountancy and develop a sense of moral
commitment towards other individuals.
KEY WORDS: accounting, education, emotion,
humanisation, the other
Introduction
[Auschwitz] was . . . a mundane extension of the
modern factory system. Rather than producing
goods, the raw material was human beings and the
end product was death, so many units per day
marked carefully on the manager’s production
charts. The chimneys, the very symbol of the
modern factory system, poured forth acrid smoke
produced by burning human flesh. The brilliantly
organised railroad grid of modern Europe carried
a new kind of raw material to factories. It did so
in the same manner as with other cargo. In the
gas chambers the victims inhaled noxious gas gen-
erated by prussic acid pellets which were produced
by the advanced chemical industry of Germany.
Engineers designed the crematoria; managers
designed the system of bureaucracy that worked
with a zest and efficiency more backward nations
would envy. Even the overall plan its self was a
reflection of the modern scientific spirit gone
280 Ken McPhail
awry. What we witnessed was nothing less than a
massive scheme of social engineering. (Feingold
in Bauman, 1996, p. 9)
In his book, Modernity and the Holocaust,
Zygmunt Bauman (1996) argues that the
Holocaust was not an irrational aberration of
modern society but its loudest and clearest
expression. Bauman contends that the holocaust
is crucial to understanding our modern, man-
agerialist society because it reminds us of just
how poverty stricken and ethically blind that
pristine bureaucratic system is (see also Funnell,
1998).
To quote Hilberg . . . “It must be kept in mind
that most of the participants [of genocide] did not
fire rifles at Jewish children or pour gas into gas
chambers. . . . Most bureaucrats composed mem-
oranda, drew up blueprints, talked on the tele-
phone, and participated in conferences. They
would destroy a whole people sitting at their desk.”
Were they aware of the product of their ostensibly
innocuous bustle – such knowledge would say, at
best in the remote recesses of their minds. Causal
connections between their actions and the mass
murder were difficult to spot. Little moral oppro-
brium was attached to the natural human proclivity
to avoid worrying more than necessity required –
and thus to abstain from examining the whole
length of causal chain up to its furthest links. To
understand how that astounding moral blindness
was possible, it is helpful to think of the workers
of an armament plant who rejoice in the stay of
execution of their factory thanks to big new orders
while at the same time honestly bewailing the mas-
sacres visited upon each other by Ethiopians and
Eritreans. (Bauman, 1996, p. 24)
While very few areas of our managerialist society
manage to evade Bauman’s damning analysis,
accountancy is singled out as being particularly
culpable. He says, “industries influence was felt
in the great emphasis upon accounting, penny
saving, and salvage, as well as in the factory like
efficiency of the killing centres” (Bauman, 1996,
p. 14, my emphasis). According to Bauman
(1996) the success of the Final Solution depended
upon the capacity of managerial techniques to
denude individuals of their dignity and deprive
them of their humanity (Funnell, 1998; Fahy et
al., 1999). Following Kelman (1973), Bauman
(1996) contends that managerial techniques like
accounting erode moral sympathy for other indi-
viduals because of the way in which they autho-
rise violence; routinise actions; and dehumanise
victims (see Bauman, 1996; Bauman, 1998). This
paper focuses on the third condition in partic-
ular. The paper has two arguments: firstly,
drawing on work by Funnell (1998) it is con-
tended that accounting dehumanises individuals
and consequently makes it easier for some people
to treat other people cruelly; and secondly, based
on this contention, that accounting education
should contain an ethics component which
attempts to engender a sense of empathy for and
moral commitment to, “the other”.
Bauman (1996) identifies three factors within
modern managerialist techniques that might be
involved in the process of dehumanisation:
1. Quantification and Distantiation
2. Categorisation, and
3. Exclusion
From the work of Milgram (see for example
1974) we know that there is an inverse correla-
tion between an individual’s willingness to be
cruel to someone and their proximity to their
victim. Milgram argued that while it may be
difficult to harm a person we can see, hear and
touch it gets progressively easier to inflict pain
on them the greater the physical and psycholog-
ical distance we are from them.
The relationship between distance and moral
sympathy can be applied to the analysis of
accounting and business ethics in two ways.
Firstly, in a very literal sense, the multinational
nature of business means that there is very often
a huge gap between the centralised decision
making function and the individuals who will
be affected by its decisions. Indeed, accounting
may have facilitated the development of multi-
national business because it can be used to
manage at a distance and ultimately overcome the
problem of space (McPhail, 1999). However,
while the relaxing of trade barriers and the
expansion of international business might be
good for capital mobility, it has a detrimental
impact on the kind of moral sympathy that
comes from knowing people rather than simply
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
knowing about them. There is a danger that
ethical obligation to individuals – employees,
customers and suppliers – may diminish because
they exist many miles away as grossly simplistic
categories and typifications (see Bauman, 1998).
Yet the problem of distance does not just relate
to the increasingly multinational nature of
business and the physical distance between indi-
viduals. Accounting increases the moral distance
between individuals who are spatially close. This
brings me to the second, more abstract applica-
tion of Milgram’s work. Bauman applies
Milgram’s work to modern managerial tech-
niques and contends that distantiation and sub-
sequently dehumanisation are achieved by
representing individuals as objects in technical
and ethically neutral terms (Bauman, 1996).
Bauman contends that “dehumanization starts at
the point when, thanks to distantiation, the
objects at which the bureaucratic operation is
aimed are reduced to a set of quantitative
measures” (Bauman, 1996, p. 102).1 This is
because the quantification of people masks the
relationship between an individual’s actions and
the consequences those actions might have, not
on the categories of profit, expenses or produc-
tion costs, but for other sentient human beings.
Representing people in quantitative terms
quashes the moral significance of the decisions
which are subsequently based on those figures
and consequently suppresses the potential
moral conflict of knowing how your actions
could adversely affect another human being
(Donaldson, 1988). This ordinary, repetitive act
of quantification is analogous to Funnell’s (1998,
p. 452) example of the administration of Jews,
The conversion of Jews to a one-dimensional
metric, an integer, as a component of tabulations
that could be arithmetically manipulated, stripped
the identity and all other qualities from the Jews
and gave their tormentors the anonymity for the
subjects of their work that enabled them to avoid
the human correspondence of their accounts.
Bauman’s arguments are particularly relevant for
accounting. While accountancy may be able to
provide a plethora of detailed information about
individuals, the kind of calculative data it gener-
ates may actually increase the anonymity or emo-
281
tional distance between for example, managers
and workers, or managers and customers (Miller
and O’Leary, 1987; Hoskin and Macve, 1986).
This kind of calculative representation denudes
human beings of their identities, and as a conse-
quence, we may feel little or no moral obliga-
tion towards them (Funnell, 1998).
Bauman’s later work on the importance of
“the other” is undoubtedly influenced by his
earlier study of the holocaust. In his thesis on
Postmodern Ethics, Bauman (1996) contends that
developing an ethical attachment to other people
is a fundamental aspect of ethics. Indeed, he
contends that it is a crucial requirement for a
cohesive society. Nielsen (1991) similarly argues
that societies are held together only when each
member is prepared to accept that, the “I” is part
of a prior and much more basic “we”. However,
Gray et al. (1994) argue that accounting may
actually stultify the kind of empathy that Bauman
(1993) suggests is so important if societies are
going to function in a remotely ethical or com-
passionate way, regardless of whether or not it
would be reasonable or efficient for a society to
operate in this way.
As yet there has been little systematic analysis
within the critical accounting literature of how
to humanise accounting or indeed whether it is
possible. This article explores the ways in which
it might be possible to operationalise a response
to the dehumanisation of accounting through
accounting education (see McPhail, forthcoming;
Patten and Williams, 1990; Poneman, 1992;
Power, 1991). While there are specific studies of
ethics and accounting education and calls for
change in accounting education within the
accounting literature, there has, as yet, been little
systematic and critical analysis of the goals of
accounting ethics education (Herndon, 1996) or
the specific techniques which could be used in
order to achieve particular objectives. McPhail
(1999) calls for accounting students to be
educated for the other. This article attempts to
begin to think about what this kind of ethics
education might involve and whether it could go
some way towards humanising accountancy and
accountants. The paper studies the kind of ethics
education being developed within medical, legal
and engineering degrees in order to see whether
282 Ken McPhail
it can shed some light on what this kind of
education might practically involve. It is con-
tended that some of the developments within
these areas might go some way towards engen-
dering the kind of empathy that educating for
“the other” implies.
The paper is split into two sections. Section
one discusses the objectives of ethics education.
It is contended that some of the objectives
outlined in the legal, medical and engineering
literature could be seen to be coterminous with
educating for the other. Section two attempts to
draw on ideas being implemented within these
professions in order to develop a programme for
teaching ethics to accounting students.
The objectives of ethics education
There has been considerable debate within the
business ethics literature over the objectives of
business ethics education (see McDonald and
Donleavy, 1995; Herndon, 1996). Building on
the analysis in the introduction, this section
contends that ethics education should attempt to
humanise accounting students, that is, that it
should engender a sense of moral commitment
towards other individuals.
While the accounting literature contains some
discussion of the objectives of accounting edu-
cation, both the objectives and the analysis of
these objectives seems rather narrow (Loeb, 1988,
although see Gray et al., 1994; McDonald and
Donleavy, 1995; Herndon, 1996), at least in
comparison with other professional literature.
Within some of the medical, engineering and
legal literature the goals of ethics education seem
more critical. Three issues appear to be gener-
ally accepted in the more critical ethics literature.
Firstly, ethics should not be treated as just another
subject which students learn about (see McCuen,
1994; Webb, 1996). Secondly, ethics education
should not involve the uncritical assimilation of
professional codes of conduct (Webb, 1996). And
finally, studying abstract ethical theory is not that
important (Myser et al., 1995; Webb, 1996),
although a familiarity with broad ethical princi-
ples and concepts might be useful (Baylis and
Downie, 1989; Saunders, 1995).
At least some of the medical and legal ethics
literature would therefore concur that ethics edu-
cation should not simply provide students with
academic knowledge about ethics. In contrast to
the more hegemonic aims of much accounting
ethics education (McPhail, 1999), the medical,
legal and engineering literature promotes three
more critical objectives:
1. Disruption;
2. The development of a broad view of the
profession; and
3. The development of students moral sensi-
bility.
All of these aims are coterminous with the
general objective of rehumanising accountancy.
Aims 1 and 2 can be viewed as sub-goals of the
overall objective of developing the ability of
accounting students to empathise with other
human beings.
Disruption
From the literature, it would seem that perhaps
the most important objective of ethics education
is to disrupt students’ perceptions about their
profession, themselves and the impact that their
actions, as accountants, have on other individ-
uals. In the medical and legal ethics literature
Parker (1995) and Matasar (1989) suggest that in
order for students firstly to be aware of their own
values and secondly to be able to critically
appraise them, ethics education must set out to
disrupt students’ taken for granted beliefs and
assumptions. Parker (1995, p. 308), for example,
explains that medical ethics education should
“stimulate critical scrutiny amongst students’
settled ideas”.
There are a number of different ways in which
students’ ethical awareness can be disrupted.
Firstly, it can be disrupted as students are encour-
aged to appreciate the impact of their routine
practices on other people. The literature suggests
that one of the areas where disruption is required
most is in relation to the individual’s apprecia-
tion of the impact their mundane everyday
actions have on society in general. Bauman
argues that the recognition that one’s mundane
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
actions cruelly affect other human beings is
most disrupting. However, as well as disrupting
students’ ethical sensitivities so they become
aware of ethical dilemmas, students can also be
disrupted further if no clear solutions are
provided to these dilemmas (Gowan et al., 1996).
Within the legal ethics literature, Matasar (1989)
raises the issue of intentionally disrupting
students’ values and beliefs by not providing them
with clear solutions to ethical dilemmas (see for
example Tucker, 1983; Vesilind, 1991; Kremers,
1889; Miles et al., 1989; Parker 1995; Webb,
1996; Matasar, 1989). Instead of providing solu-
tions, students are encouraged to critically
appraise their received set of values and develop
their own set of ethical commitments (see for
example Gray et al., 1994; Huss and Paterson,
1993). This view is based on the idea that ethics
is empowering rather than restrictive (see
Kjonstad and Willmott, 1995). That is, ethics
education is not about providing students with a
set of rules detailing forbidden actions but rather
that it can be a process whereby individuals
become more consciously involved in the ethical
choices that construct their identities (McPhail,
1999). Within the engineering literature
(Chapple, 1991, in Killingsworth and Twale,
1994); the medical literature (see for example
Parker, 1995) and the legal literature (Webb,
1996) it is suggested that ethics education should
be a process of self reflection, or reflection on the
self, in which students are encouraged to develop
a critical awareness of their own values (Khun,
1998; see Baylis and Downie, 1989; Grundstein-
Amado, 1995; Miles et al., 1989) and the con-
tradictory values they often employ within
different parts of their lives. Hafferty and Franks
(1994) for example argue ethics education should
develop students’ ability to be self-reflective and
to be aware of the distinctions between the self
and the roles one occupies.
The legal education literature suggests that
unsettling students’ assumptions is important
because changes in moral judgement may be trig-
gered by the kind of moral crisis that results from
being confronted with a situation which repre-
sents a challenge to one’s beliefs or which exposes
the inconsistencies between one’s thoughts and
actions. Osler and Schafli (1983) contend that
283
these kinds of situations create a state of moral
disequilibrium that has to be resolved. They
contend that it is the need to re-establish equi-
librium that generates the dissonance required
to initiate the learning processes. Weisberg and
Duffin (1995, p. 248, see also Webb, 1996) sum
up this kind of disruptive objective when they
state that their aim is “to make professional
ethics, professional culture and professional edu-
cation the objects of study rather than simply the
unreflective consequences of exposure to profes-
sional language, culture and training”.
Need to develop a broad view of the profession
The second critical objective that can be identi-
fied within the professional literature is the neces-
sity of providing students with a broader view
of their profession. However, this objective
requires clarification: what is the range of ethical
issues that relate to accounting?
Within the accounting literature the scope of
ethical analysis ranges from auditor independence
(Gunz et al., 1991; Backof and Martin, 1991) to
the morality of market economics. Unfortunately
within accounting the issue of ethics has con-
ventionally been limited to studying the accoun-
tant’s obligation to remain faithful to investors
and creditors. For example, according to Stanga
and Turpen (1991, p. 740, see also Lehmann,
1988), “accountants have special obligations to
behave ethically because of the considerable trust
that investors and creditors place in them”. They
go on to say, “for capital markets to work effi-
ciently in allocating resources among business
enterprises, the investing public must have con-
fidence in financial information and in the
accountants who help to prepare and audit it”
(Stanga and Turpen, 1991, p. 740, see also
Michalos, 1979 in Waples et al., 1991). Yet this
narrow view of ethics ignores the responsibili-
ties that members of a profession have, by
definition, to the rest of society (Gaa, 1990;
Willmott, 1989) and the broader ideological,
political and hegemonic functions that the
professions serve within our capitalist society
(Tinker, 1985; Mahoney, 1990, 1993; McPhail,
1999; Lehman, 1988). Accounting, for example,
284 Ken McPhail
is based on marginalist economic assumptions
and financial utilitarian ethics, both of which
serve to perpetuate the inequalities and inequities
of free market capitalism (Abell, 1990; Tinker et
al., 1982). Lehman (1988, p. 72) has argued that,
“the real task of education should be to explore
the institutional structures sustaining inequalities
and inhibiting ethical behavior”. She contends
that, “by providing students with an under-
standing of accounting’s inevitable participation
in these conflicts they will be in a position to
develop and implement substantive programs that
advance ethical behavior”.
Mahoney suggests that business ethics cannot
ignore the macro-issues of economic alternatives
to capitalism and the free market. He suggests
that ethics courses must seriously consider the
ethics of competition, share ownership, self
interest and economic and social individualism
(Mahoney, 1990, 1993). If ethics education did
attempt to give students an appreciation of
the broader economic and ethical assumptions
that underpin accounting then students would
undoubtedly be confronted with the dilemma of
the incompatibility of an economic system that
constructs other people as competitors that are
to be distrusted and a system of ethics that con-
structs other people as sentient human beings to
be cared for (Kuhn, 1998; Cragg, 1997). Business
ethics is therefore inseparable from the debate
about, “the moral basis of the market economy”
(Mahoney, 1990, p. 549; 1993; see also Gray et
al., 1994).
Similar opinions have been expressed within
the medical ethics literature. Hafferty and Franks
(1994, p. 11) for example maintain that any
attempt to develop a comprehensive curriculum
for ethics education in medicine must “acknowl-
edge the broader cultural milieu within which
that curriculum will ultimately function”
Hafferty and Franks (1994, p. 11, see also Miles
et al., 1989) argue that “many ethics courses fail
because they stress ethics at the individual
patient-doctor level and do not address medicine
as an institutional and organisational entity”. The
DeCamp group also suggest that ethics courses
in medical schools should include a considera-
tion of the broader social context of medical
treatment and in particular the problem of the
“equitable distribution of inadequate health
care resources” (Gillon, 1996, p. 323). Within
the engineering literature Koehn and Bourque
(1990, see also Koehn, 1992) also argue that one
of the major goals for ethics education for
engineers should be the fostering of the recog-
nition that engineering and construction projects
may have considerable political, economic and
social implications. Similar concerns have also
been expressed within the legal ethics literature
(see for example Moliterno, 1996; Parker,
1995).
It is therefore broadly recognised across the
three professions that one of the main goals of
ethics education should be to encourage students
to recognise the broader social and political
context within which their profession is situated.2
Indeed, if we restrict the scope of ethics educa-
tion to the discussion of codes of ethical practice,
then we may paradoxically simply be legitimating
the inequities and inequalities of the prevailing
capitalist system (Lehman, 1988).3 Students need
to be aware of the structural issues which
impinge upon ethical decision making (Fogarty,
1995). One of the initial objectives of accounting
education must be to develop a broader appre-
ciation of the function of accounting as a context
against which the moral aspects of this practice
can be explored.
The legitimisation of emotion and the development
of moral sensibilities
The third and final critical objective that can be
identified within the literature is the need to
develop students’ moral sensibility. Even if
accounting ethics education were to show how
accounting practice is influenced by neo-classical
market economics and explain the impact that
this practice may have on individuals’ lives this
may have little impression on students’ ethical
sensibilities if individuals are still represented as
categories and denuded of their humanity.
Understanding how and why individuals may be
affected in particular ways by your actions is one
thing but entering into the anxiety, pain, fear,
despair and hatred that another sentient human
being experiences as a result of your actions is
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
far more disturbing and disrupting. This objec-
tive goes to the core of ethics.
There is a history of contention within moral
philosophy between philosophers like Locke and
Hobbes who equated ethics with proper reason
and Hume and Shaftsbury who argued that the
recognition and resolution of moral dilemmas
must be attributed to a moral sense. So, should
accounting students be taught to recognise and
resolve moral dilemmas through a moral sense
or through the application of reason? (see
McPhail, 1999; MacIntyre, 1967; Kuhn, 1998).
The medical ethics literature provides us with an
example which may help to clarify this point.
Within this literature it has been contended that
courses in medical ethics should develop analyt-
ical and practical ways of resolving ethical
dilemmas. Miles et al. (1989) for example suggest
that courses in ethics should help physicians to
employ ethical knowledge in clinical reasoning.
Myser et al. (1995, p. 97) describes “the devel-
opment of a seminar programme for teaching
medical students a more systematic approach to
ethical reasoning and analysis (my italics)”.
However, other medical ethics researchers have
contended that an ethics course should develop
students’ moral sense rather than, or in con-
junction with, their analytical reasoning skills (see
Kuhn, 1998). Green et al. (1995, p. 234) contend
that any attempt to affect ethical reasoning must
address “the issues of reduced sensitivity, time
constraints and the psychological defence mech-
anisms often used by students and doctors to
minimise their own discomfort”. In a similar vein
Miles et al. (1989, p. 707) suggest that ethics edu-
cation should “aim to alleviate the dehumanising
aspects of medical education” (my italics).
Wichman and Foa (1996) contend that ethics
education requires sensitivity. The DeCamp
Group also recommended that medical ethics
teaching should be “both intellectually rigorous
and emotionally supportive and facilitating”
(Gillon, 1996, p. 323; see also Green et al.,
1995).
Within the medical and legal literature in
particular, the development of moral sensitivity
has been related to the rehumanisation of the
professions (see MacIntyre, 1967; McNaughton,
1988; McPhail, 1999). Miles et al. (1989, p. 706)
285
for example suggest that courses in medical ethics
should endeavour to teach doctors to “recognise
the humanistic and ethical aspects of medical
careers”. Also, The First Report argues that legal
ethics is about personal and professional values
and the ethical and humanitarian dimensions of
law (Webb, 1996, see also Broadbent, 1998;
Bok, 1976; Hiltebeitel and Jones, 1992; Kuhn,
1998; DeMoss and McCann, 1997; Tucker, 1983;
Vesilind, 1991; Kremers, 1989; Shea, 1988;
Lande and Slade, 1979).
Analysis and application
This section of the paper has attempted to show
that Bauman’s contention that we must educate
for the other is not entirely incommensurate with
an emerging debate within some of the profes-
sional literature. However, it has also been sug-
gested that Bauman’s work provides a theoretical
framework for extending the scope of the objec-
tives of ethics education and radicalising them.
If the dehumanising tendencies of our manage-
rialist society in general and accounting in par-
ticular are to be challenged then one of the most
important objectives for any form of business
ethics education must be to develop an empathy
with “the other”.
The following section studies some develop-
ments within the medical, legal and engineering
professions in order to suggest some specific
methods which could be employed in order to
enable students to enter into the feelings and
emotions of others and develop a sense of moral
commitment towards them.
Developing methods for educating for the
other
The first main section has suggested that one of
the aims, if not the aim, of business ethics courses
should be to humanise students and try to
encourage them to empathise with other indi-
viduals. This section attempts to outline some
methods that could be used within a business
ethics course designed to increase students’ emo-
tional commitment to other individuals (see
286 Ken McPhail
Downie et al., 1997; Kuhn, 1998; Romisowski,
1981; Stenhouse, 1975; Laurillard, 1993; Pask,
1976).
There are relatively few specific examples of
methods and techniques which could be used to
teach ethics within the accounting literature
(although see Huss and Patterson, 1993; Loeb,
1988)4,5 and nothing on how it might be possible
to develop emotional sensitivity towards other
people. This stands in contrast to the medical,
legal and engineering ethics literature. This
section draws on the experiences gained and the
ideas being developed for teaching ethics within
these professions and attempts to use these ideas
as a basis for outlining a programme for developing
emotional sensitivity within accounting students.
The section attempts to link the teaching
methods delineated in the literature to the objec-
tives discussed above. Eight issues are discussed
in particular:
1. Interdisciplinarity;
2. Group learning;
3. Real life case studies;
4. Role play;
5. Film;
6. Literature;
7. Personal value journals;
8. Timing.
Interdisciplinary approach
One major theme which runs through the legal
(Weisberg and Duffin, 1995; Webb, 1996), engi-
neering (Mickleborough and Wareham, 1994, see
also Cottell, 1993; Tansel, 1994; and Coates,
1993) and medical (Weatherall, 1995; Miles et
al., 1989; Gillon, 1996) ethics literatures is that
an interdisciplinary approach to ethics can disrupt
students’ ethical perceptions and lay the basis for
developing emotional sensitivity. Two issues are
important here: firstly, the content of the course;
and secondly, the composition of the class.
The first issue relates to the content of ethics
courses. Miles et al. (1989, p. 705) for example
suggest that as part of the interdisciplinary
approach to ethics more emphasis should be
placed on “the humanities and liberal arts
encompassing the philosophical discipline of
ethics, the moral and legal foundations of medical
ethics and the historical, cultural and public
policy context of health care”. Florman (1987)
also contends that the role of the humanities
should be increased within engineering pro-
grammes because of the ability they have to
develop and broaden the technical imagination.
He suggests that poetry, music, myths and
stories could all be used to engender greater
imaginative creativity within engineers’ thought
processes. However, while Herkert and Viscomi
(1991) agree that ethics education should empha-
sise the relationship between technology and
social, political, economic, ethical and legal
concerns, they suggest that engineering depart-
ments need to design specific courses for engi-
neering students rather than just including a few
humanities courses in their curriculum.6 Later
in this section it is suggested that it might be
possible to use literature and film in order to
develop emotional sensitivity in accounting
students. However, it is also stressed that the
novels and films should be carefully chosen in
order to confront students with the ethical
dilemmas in accounting and the feelings or
humanity of the people caught up in accounting
situations. Thus, if one of the objectives of ethics
education is to help students appreciate how their
actions affect others it would not be enough for
them simply to attend a few lectures on Shelly
or Byron.
The humanities might be able to help in two
ways here. Firstly, if, as I have argued above,
developing ethical sensitivity involves entering
into the feelings and emotions of other sentient
human beings then this requires quite a highly
developed imagination. The humanities may
provide us with the material, the poems, litera-
ture and music whereby students can begin to
engage with the individuals behind the categories
they conventionally work with. Secondly, the
humanities can provide a basis for exploring dif-
ferent ways of knowing. The epistemology of a
piece of poetry or prose, for example, can
provide the basis for exploring different ways of
knowing and for critiquing the assumed ration-
ality of accounting (Morgan, 1988).
The second issue relates to the importance of
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
the composition of the ethics class. The legal
ethics literature, for example, contains a report
on the development of a course for law, medical
and nursing students that attempted to combine
the three streams of students in an effort to get
them to discuss the preconceptions they had
about the others’ professions. The course studied
professionalism and professional ethics using
images of doctors, lawyers and nurses in litera-
ture (Weisberg and Duffin, 1995). Courses like
this highlight the importance of the interdisci-
plinary composition of ethics classes (see
Hendron, 1996). Weisberg and Duffin (1995,
p. 247) explain that their course was designed so
that “aspiring professionals could share their self
conceptions and their conceptions of each
other”.7 Bringing students from different disci-
plines together to study ethics might be a useful
way of disrupting students’ perceptions of them-
selves; their profession; and the individuals they
will work with.
Group learning and hermeneutics
The literature also discusses the merits of using
group learning in order to develop ethical sen-
sitivity (see for example Huss and Patterson,
1993; Peek et al., 1994; Abdolmohammadi et al.,
1997; Gowen et al., 1996; Betts et al., 1993;
Vesilind, 1991; Gunn and Vesillird, 1984; Herkert
and Visconni, 1991; Robertson, 1987; Boud,
1987; Weatherall, 1995; Saunders, 1995; Gillon,
1996 and Green et al., 1995).
It is the hermeneutic character of group
learning in particular that could be most useful
for educating for the other. Colby and Kholberg
(1987, p. 2, see also Hartwell, 1990) for example
explain how a group learning approach “depends
on the teachers ability to draw out ideas from the
student’s perspective through dialogue rather than
by imposing their own framework upon the
students”. They describe the group as a “non-
hierarchical learning environment”, where the
students learn from each other and the lecturer
plays only a facilitating role (see Webb, 1996;
Hoffman, 1982).
One of the problems that Bauman identifies in
his analysis of the holocaust is that many indi-
287
viduals viewed themselves as simply following
orders. Bauman (1996, p. 162) explains, “what
we do know for sure, thanks to Milgram, is that
the subjects of his experiments went on com-
mitting deeds which they recognised as cruel
solely because they were commanded to do so
by the authority they accepted and vested with
the ultimate responsibility for their actions”.
Conventional forms of accounting education, and
professional education in general, covertly train
students to be obedient to authority. Students
learn by experience that it is their duty to obey
rather than question. Moral responsibility is
replaced by discipline to the techniques of the
profession. Adopting a hermeneutic approach to
ethics education challenges the authority of the
lecturer and places the burden of responsibility
upon the student.8 Accounting ethics education
needs to find forums for encouraging accounting
students to explore their own identity and the
identity of others.
Issue based case studies
The next question to be addressed is what
students should do in their small interdisciplinary
groups (see Parker, 1995; Bissonette et al., 1995;
Webb, 1996).9
Tucker (1983), Vesilind (1991) and Kremers
(1989, see also Glynn and Fergusson, 1994;
Russel and McCulloch, 1990) suggest that ethics
education in engineering should involve the
use of case studies. Koehn (1991) describes the
development of a seminar devoted to ethics and
professionalism in engineering which addressed
specific issues. It included issues like the
Challenger disaster as well as more general topics
like the ethics of nuclear power.
However, within the medical ethics literature
a heavy reliance on case-centred methods of
teaching has been criticised as neglecting “the
foundations of ethical or legal knowledge or
as over emphasising ethics as a form of
problem solving at the expense of inculcating an
ethos of medicine, a professional philosophy
and demeanour that lessens the likelihood of
problems arising in the first place” (Miles et al.,
1989, p. 708). This reservation however has more
288 Ken McPhail
to do with the way case studies are presently used
rather than case study work per se (Kuhn, 1998).
Williamson (1996, p. 325, see also Coope, 1986;
Weatherall, 1995) for example, writing in the
medical ethics literature, argues that case studies
can be useful provided they involve real patients
and are about real issues rather than abstract
hypothetical problems. He argues that medical
issues are best illustrated by real people with
real ailments because “it keeps a little spark of
humanism alive”. He advocates the use of real
life cases explaining that “an articulate young
person with a life-long, life-threatening disease
can put the case for an honest and thoughtful
approach by the doctor to the patient much
better than I can”. He goes on to say that “most
of the patients carry the discussion to the students
in a way which makes the teacher almost irrele-
vant”. Baylis and Downie (1991) also discuss the
use of real case studies in order to encourage
students to talk about their feelings and emotions.
Similar opinions have been expressed within the
law literature. Webb (1996) for example implies
that students should be brought face to face with
the realities of ethical decision making, not
abstract rule application techniques or abstract
hypothetical situations.
Other techniques which have been used in
engineering ethics education which are pertinent
to the issue of real life case studies include guest
speakers and interviews (Koehn, 1992; Gowan et
al., 1996). Thus, it might be possible to invite
individuals along to participate in accounting
ethics seminars, for example workers who have
just been made unemployed and businessmen
who have been convicted of fraud. The use of
real life cases in business ethics education may
be more effective than artificial vignettes (see for
example Peek et al., 1994).
Lachs (1981) explains that there are many
actions that no one consciously appropriates
because, for the individual on whose behalf they
are conducted, they exist only in a string of
words. He contends that an individual will not
appropriate them as their own if they have never
lived through them. One of the key functions
of case studies must therefore be to give students
some idea what it feels like to actually go through
certain experiences (Lachs, 1981). The following
sections introduce some techniques that might
help in this respect.
Role play
One of the keys to the success of the final solution
is found in the bureaucratic system’s ability to
render its the victims psychologically invisible.
Bauman (1996, p. 26) says,
At the Einsatzgruppen stage, the rounded-up
victims were brought in front of machine guns and
killed at point blank range. Though efforts were
made to keep the weapons at the longest possible
distance from the ditches into which the murdered
were to fall, it was exceedingly difficult for the
shooters to overlook the connection between
shooting and killing. This is why the administra-
tors of genocide found the method primitive and
inefficient, as well as dangerous to the morale of
the perpetrators. Other murder techniques were
therefore sought – such as would optically separate
the killers from their victims. The search was suc-
cessful and lead to the invention of the first mobile,
then stationary gas chambers; the latter – the most
perfect the Nazis had time to invent – reduced the
role of the killer to that of the “sanitation officer,”
asked to empty a sack full of, “disinfecting chem-
icals,” through an aperture in the roof of a building,
the interior of which he was not prompted to visit.
However, the process of rendering the victims
invisible began long before the final act of killing.
Bauman (1996, p. 26) explains how the Jews
were effectively excluded from the Nazis’
“universe of obligation”, through their con-
struction as lice and the representation of the
Jewish question in terms of a process of personal
and political hygiene. This discourse was sup-
ported by the posters warning of typhus on the
walls of ghettos and even in the purchasing
of chemicals from the German Fumigation
Company. These chemicals were used in the gas
chambers. The total dehumanisation of the Jews
was achieved through a process of categorisation
and stigmatisation not entirely dissimilar to the
construction of labour as an expense.
If the issue of dehumanisation is to be seri-
ously addressed within ethics education then it
must deal with the problem of how to render the
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
victims of unethical actions visible. This section
and the following two sections begin to think
how this might be possible.
In relation to the study of real life situations,
the literature also discusses the potential of game
playing (Lansley, 1985, Veshosky and Edbers,
1991; Gowan et al., 1996) and role play in order
to develop ethical sensitivity (see Miles et al.,
1989). One novel approach has included asking
students to act out ethical dilemmas. Baylis and
Downie (1991, p. 414) explain that “the strength
of these approaches is that it can very effectively
convey to the students the feelings and experi-
ences of the people they may encounter as
patients”. The legal ethics literature also discusses
the possibility of using role play to aid experi-
ential learning in ethics (see Moliterno, 1996;
Betts et al., 1993; Vesilind, 1991; Gunn and
Vesillird, 1984; Herkert and Visconni, 1991;
Robertson, 1987). Webb (1996, p. 270) discusses
the potential of using role play to develop law
students ethical proclivities. He says “learning in
legal ethics is enhanced where students are con-
fronted by the reality of acting in the role of the
lawyer”. It is contended that role play and struc-
tured discussion can all be used to create a sense
of internal conflict (Khun, 1998).
Film
I suggested above that one of the objectives of
role play was to “convey to the students the
feelings and experiences of the people they may
encounter as patients” (Baylis and Downie, 1991,
p. 414). The literature also identifies two other
issues which may be used to achieve similar
results: the use of film and the use of literature.
The use of film is gaining increasing recogni-
tion as a valid educational tool (see for example
Adler, 1995; Griffin, 1995; Proctor, 1993;
Proctor and Adler, 1991; Serey, 1992; and Zorn,
1991). Within the medical ethics literature, for
example, Green et al. (1995) explain how the dis-
cussion of films has been used to promote ethical
thinking and moral reasoning. They report on a
workshop which used videotape segments,
including “Titicut Follies”, a film by Frederick
Wiseman about an asylum for the criminally
289
insane. Green et al. (1995, p. 235) explain that
sometimes “members of the group are shocked
by the images and need to discuss and explore
their feelings of anger” (see also Giroux,
1997).
Berger and Pratt (1998) provide an account
of their attempt to use film as a basis for engen-
dering discussion of business-communication
ethics issues. Using two films by David Mamet
– Glengarry Glen Ross and House of Games –
Berger and Pratt (1998) attempt to confront
students with some disturbing issues relating to
public relations as a function of business com-
munication. From the results they report it would
seem that film could be a very effective way of
exploring the feelings and emotions of individ-
uals caught within ethical dilemmas.
Literature
The medical ethics literature also discusses the
related possibility of using poetry and prose in
ethics education to develop students’ ethical
sensibilities (Downie, 1998; see Shepard et al.,
1997). Green et al. (1995, p. 235) for example
report on a workshop which used “The
Holocaust and German Psychiatry”, a book on
how the state influences medical practice, to
provide a “brief and uncompromising introduc-
tion” to medical ethics. Carson (1994, p. 238)
explains the advantages of using literature in
ethics education, saying that careful reading of
imaginative literature teaches “attentiveness to
the feelings of other human beings and the care
of the sick.” He argues that literature should be
used in order to develop an ethical sense. Why?
“Because without a sensibility attuned to what
people’s lives are outside the auspices of medicine
. . . what matters to people before they get sick
and what they are like after they get well . . .
the best efforts of physicians to heal the sick are
likely to be morally compromised” (Carson,
1994, p. 238). Carson (1994, p. 238) argues that
“literature . . . primes the imagination, enlarging
our capacity to imagine and shaping our sensi-
bility”. It is argued that reading this kind of
literature can broaden medical students’ moral
vision, shape their sensibilities and “deepen their
290 Ken McPhail
understanding of illness and injury as disruptive
events in peoples lives” (Carson, 1994, p. 238).
Carson (1994, p. 238) explains that this kind
of ethical education is completely opposite to
the prevailing approach to education where
“students are taught to keep their feelings to
themselves because feelings are believed to
muddle the mind”. Downie et al. (1997, p. 277,
see also Downie and Charlton, 1992) explain,
“good literature engages the emotions and
reveals and challenges hidden values and
prejudices allowing students to develop self
awareness”.
Weisberg and Duffin (1995) report on their
use of literature in their ethics course for lawyers.
They explain how A Jury of Her Peers by Susan
Glaspell was used to generate discussion of
difference. Similarly, Webb (1996) argues that a
dialectical teaching method might draw on clas-
sical and contemporary ethical readings like John
Girsham, Mailer (The Executioner’s song), and
The Merchant of Venice. He also suggests using
examples from TV.10
Within the literature it is suggested that role
play, film and literature are all used in order to
“humanise” the study of ethics, develop students’
moral sensibilities and give them an insight into
the feelings of others through the development
of the imagination (see Coles, 1989). Downie
(1991, p. 96) contends that “we learn from
literature through imaginative identification . . .
by having our imagination stretched through
being made to enter into unfamiliar situations
to see points of view other than our own”.
According to Downie (1991, p. 96), learning
from literature has three important functions:
firstly, “it develops our sympathies and makes us
feel something of what it is like to be in the
situation, it develops empathetic sympathy”,
secondly, “literature can help with coming to
terms with emotions and conflicts”; and finally,
“literature gives rise to moral questions . . . the
utilitarian cost-benefit approach to problems
seems plausible as presented in an academic
textbook, but literature can force us to look
beyond the false finality of a calculus and chal-
lenge us to refashion our attitudes”. As such, real
life case studies, role play, film and literature may
all be used in order to try and re-humanise the
accounting profession and develop a sense of
moral obligation towards other individuals.11
Personal values journals
Another issue which appears particularly in the
legal and medical ethics literature is associated
not with the feelings of other people but rather
with the feelings of the students themselves. Both
literatures discuss the use of personal value
journals where students are encouraged to write
about and explore their feelings and values
(Grundstein-Amado, 1995). Grundstein-Amado
(1995, p. 174) explains that value journals may
“help students define who they are and what
their roles are”.
The literature on legal ethics education also
contains quite a detailed explanation of the
benefits of value journals for ethics education
(Webb, 1996 and Moliterno, 1996). Weisberg and
Duffin (1995, p. 251) for example explain how
students were asked to record their thoughts on
the class discussions and readings as well as their
images of themselves and the people presented in
the stories. They contend that, “unlike papers
or examinations which synthesise work done
over time, distil it and reduce it to a product, a
journal is a record of responses that needn’t
culminate in a single conclusion or set of con-
clusions. It encourages writers to proliferate
images.” They explain that “by inviting writers
to record and respond to their own experiences,
a journal also encourages them to connect who
they are to what they are doing, to interrogate
personal and professional language, personal and
professional judgement” (Weisberg and Duffin,
1995, p. 251). “Finally, by inviting writers to
record their experiences, their questions and to
respond to them as they want rather than
according to the imagined standards of an
(imagined) professor, journals encourage writers
to take control of their own education”
(Weisberg and Duffin, 1995, p. 251).
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
Timing issues
A final practical issue which is addressed within
the legal (Webb, 1996, see also Rhode, 1992),
medical (Miles et al., 1989; Hafferty and Franks,
1994), and engineering (Lindauer and Hagerty,
1983; Koehn, 1991; Hassler, 1987; Wilcox, 1983)
literatures is when to run a course in ethics. As
part of their “Project on Professionalism and
Ethics” the American Accounting Association
have favoured teaching ethics in a specifically
dedicated course. However, a more radical
approach is advocated within the other litera-
tures.
Lindauer and Hagerty (1983) explain that
within engineering education, ethics is gener-
ally relegated to a single course towards the end
of degrees or professional training (see also
Koehn, 1991; Hassler, 1987; Wilcox, 1983).
Dunfee and Robertson (1988) however suggest
that ideally ethics must be integrated throughout
the curriculum into as many courses as possible
(see also McCuen, 1990; Lindaver and Hagerty,
1983; Hiltebeitel and Jones, 1992). Within the
medical ethics literature Saunders (1995; see also
Miles et al., 1989) also advocates a longitudinal
approach to ethics education. He argues that
ethics should be taught in all four years of the
degree and contends that ethics education should
be integrated with other courses. Similarly,
Hafferty and Franks (1994, p. 861) offer recom-
mendations on how an ethics curriculum might
be more fruitfully structured so that it becomes
“a seamless part of the training process”. Hafferty
and Franks (1994) even suggest that the connec-
tion between medicine and ethics should be
made in faculty brochures and university prospec-
tuses and during interviews in order to influence
students’ expectations as they commence their
courses. They also suggest that orientation pro-
grammes could be used to highlight the ethical
nature of medicine. Within the accounting
literature, Loeb and Rockness (1992) also
contend that ethics education should continue
beyond higher education and that companies and
firms of accountants should be responsible for
continually educating accountants in the ethics
of their profession.
It seems to me that developing the kind of
291
ethics education advocated at the beginning of
this section requires more than a single course
for business and accounting students. Indeed the
preoccupation with timing perhaps belies the fact
that ethics education is something that takes place
all the time. Students and lecturers imbibe ethics
through the architecture and aesthetic of the
spaces where they study and teach and through
systems of examination and assessment they are
caught up in. Education for the other would
require that these spaces and systems should be
changed so as to engender a different, more
empathetic, form of ethical development.
However, in conjunction with these changes,
time needs to be set aside for the critical con-
sideration of ethics. I would suggest that the
study of ethics should be an accreditation
requirement for accounting degrees. I would also
contend that accountants should be encouraged
to attend business ethics courses at regular inter-
vals after qualification, but that these courses
should be provided by university departments.
Section two has attempted to outline some
methods which could be employed within
accounting education in order to develop an
ethics programme for accounting students with
the objective of trying to develop a sense of emo-
tional sensitivity to other individuals. The use of
group learning; real life case studies; role play;
film; literature; and personal value journals may
help to expand students understanding of the
ethical nature of accounting and develop a moral
sensitivity towards other human beings.
Conclusion
This paper has drawn on Bauman’s work on
ethics to argue that accounting dehumanises indi-
viduals and makes it easier for some people to
treat other individuals in a cruel way. From this
premise, the paper argued that accounting edu-
cation should have an ethics component which
attempts to develop a sense of moral sympathy
for others. The first section of the paper discussed
the objectives of ethics education in some detail.
It was contended that some of the objectives
outlined in the legal, medical and engineering
literature could be seen to be coterminous with
292 Ken McPhail
the kind of educating for the other hinted at in
McPhail (1999). The second main section
attempted to draw on ideas being implemented
within the medical, engineering and legal
literature in order to develop a programme for
teaching ethics to accounting students based on
Bauman’s notion of “the other”.
Although the paper contains some practical
examples of how accounting educators might
teach ethics in order to engender sympathy for
others, the paper is not intended to be prescrip-
tive but rather to provide a stimulant and a basis
for further debate and discussion about the best
way to go about trying to develop some emo-
tional sensitivity towards other people within
accounting students. This is because, despite the
arguments in the second section, the implemen-
tation of a “pedagogically sophisticated” ethics
course within accounting is only part of the
answer (Hafferty and Franks, 1994, p. 869).
“Even the development of an exquisite, multi-
disciplinary, four-year formal ethics curriculum,
staffed by the best role models that dollars and
commitment can ensure, will afford students little
more than a temporary haven in what amounts
to a stormy ethical sea.” “The hidden curriculum
is not something that can be supplanted or
replaced by dedicated pedagogy or new improved
learning experiences” (Hafferty and Franks,
1994). There are structural contradictions which
impinge upon the possibility of developing a
sense of commitment towards other human
beings. Betts et al. (1993) discuss the asymmetry
of objectives between students, staff and
employers (Arditi, 1984; Vesilind, 1991, see also
Faulkner et al., 1989 and Popescu, 1987). He
suggests that there is a conflict between the dif-
ferent parties, particularly in relation to the
objectives of ethics education. In the law litera-
ture Webb (1996, see also Gray et al., 1994) for
example raises the problem of the conflict
between ethics and vocational training.12 He
addresses the challenging question of whether
ethics education should be prioritised over the
needs of the students and the legal profession. If
academics are to maintain their claim that uni-
versities provide a liberal education, then the
academic importance of ethics is central to that
claim, but its professional utility may not be. We
educators need to view our own domains as
ethical territories and take on a broader respon-
sibility, and a more activist role, in the ethical
development of our students (Hafferty et al.,
1994).
Acknowledgements
Special thanks to Rob Gray, John McKernan and
the rest of my colleagues at Glasgow University
for their help with this paper. Thanks also to the
participants at the Scottish BAA conference in
Glasgow 1999; participants at the EBEN annual
conference in Cambridge 2000; and two anony-
mous referees. Thanks also to Malaina Kavrakova
for her moving cello recital.
Notes
1
Marcel’s (1962) work on the use of abstraction as
a way of distancing one’s self from the consequences
of one’s actions may provide further insights into the
reasons why accounting’s propensity to convert indi-
viduals into numbers might make it easier for those
individuals to be treated in an unethical and uncaring
manner.
2
However, it is also important that the macro-
economic analysis of ethics should not be separated
from the microcosm of practice. Students should be
made aware that macro-ethical values are embedded
within the micro-practices they will perform (see for
example Schweiker, 1993; Francis, 1990). Within the
legal literature, Matasar (1989) attempts to relate ethics
to procedural issues. He suggests that being aware of
this dimension “opens up the discussion to the nature
of the decisions lawyers routinely take”.
3
The development of critical accounting over the
past three decades has undoubtedly had an impact on
the way accounting has been taught and subsequently
on students’ abilities to recognise the political and
ethical dimensions of accounting.
4
The techniques employed will need to overcome
business students “ethics phobia”. A post doctoral
fellow at Harvard Business School found a fear of the
subject of ethics among business students and faculty
and a feeling that ethics was bad for business (Cuilla,
1984 in Ghorpade, 1991).
5
A series of articles appearing in the Journal of
Business Ethics addressed ways of increasing business
 The Other Objective of Ethics Education
students’ ethical awareness. The recommendations
went beyond the introduction of courses in corporate
social responsibility and business ethics and suggested
changes in curriculum content and teaching methods
(Gandz and Hayes, 1988; George, 1987, 1988; Mai-
Dalton, 1987; Stead and Miller, 1988 in Kraft and
Singhapakdi, 1991).
6
They outline the development of such a course,
“Engineering, Professionalism and Ethics.” The
course is designed to provide an introduction to the
role of the engineer in society.
7
Weisberg and Duffin (1995) used freewriting to
start discussion (see Elbow, 1981) in their seminar
entitled “Images of Nurses, Doctors and Lawyers in
Literature”. As such they contend that ethics educa-
tors should use narrative as a modality. They explain
that reading stories means participating imaginatively
in other peoples lives. “Stories are the most basic way
we have of organising our experience and claiming
meaning for it” (White, 1985, see also Coles, 1989).
In order to generate discussion, focus notes were used.
Students were asked to choose something from the
literature that interested, confused or annoyed them
and to write a paragraph or two on it. These were
then photocopied and read by the group at the begin-
ning of the class. This ensures that the class mem-
bership shapes the discussion.
8
Koehn (1991) for example reports on a professional
ethics seminar where students participated in choosing
the subjects they discussed.
9
The issue of case studies has been addressed in the
accounting literature (Loeb and Rockness, 1992). For
example, in 1990, The American Accounting
Association compiled and published a book of
realistic case studies which had been submitted by both
practising and academic accountants. This publication
was intended to support the AAA’s (1988) “Project
on Professionalism and Ethics”.
10
The issue of using literature to teach ethics has
been mentioned in the business ethics literature (see
for example Coles, 1989; Kennedy and Lawton, 1992;
McAdams, 1993; McAdams and Koppensteiner,
1992). However, as yet there is little evidence of the
use of literature in teaching ethics to accounting
students.
11
This objective has been explored in the legal ethics
literature from a postmodern perspective. Chaplan
(1996) for example discusses the importance of the
other, and listening to the stories of the other. He
suggests that this involves trying to understand the
context of clients lives based on listening and not rep-
resent clients as generalisations (see McPhail, 1999;
Shepard and Hartenian, 1991).
293
12
However, perhaps these are not as mutually exclu-
sive as Webb implies.
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Department of Accounting and Finance,
University of Glasgow,
65–73 Southpark Avenue,
Glasgow, GL12 8LE,
U.K.
E-mail: k.mcphail@accfin.gla.ac.uk